Generator suspension



T. L. MOUNT.

GENERATOR SUSPENSION.

APPLICATOH .LMD 1uNE1s. 19:8.'

T. L. MOUNT.

GENERATOR SUSPENSION.

APPucATlo FILED :uur I9. me.

P A TE NT OFF 'ICE Y THOMSL. MOUNT, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

GENERATOR SUSPENSION.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented June 14, 192:1.

Application ledrJune 19, 1918. Serial No. 240,823.

I To .all whom t mayV concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS L. MOUNT, a

citizen of Vthe United States, residing at Philadelphia, in the countyof Philadelphia, State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new .anduseful AImprovements in Generator Suspensions; and I do hereby declarethe following to be a full, Clear, and exact description of theinvention, such as Will enable others skilled in the art to which itappertains to make and use the same.

' The present invention relates to apparatus for suspending an axledriven car Vlighting dynamo vor similar piece of apparatus from the bodyof aA car.

It is an objectv of the present invention to produce a suspensionlforthis purpose. Which shall be of gsimpleconstruction and light Weight,and in Which the driving belt will be maintained under substantiallyconstant tension throughout all conditions oi nse, Without thevnecessityof applying an exceslsive `tension to maintain l,the .dynamo in properposition, as ,is required in devices at present in use for suspendingaxle-driven dynamos frompar bodies.

n Another object of the. invention is to provide a suspension ot such aconstruction thatfthere is no danger ofv the dynamo alling therefromfthe means by which the .dynamo is conneetedpto the suspension breaks. Y.turtheriobjectof theinvention 4is to provide a constructionin WhichA anew'belt or a; new .tension spring .may Abereasily and quicklyappliedwith a minimum or" manual eiort, and .Without disturbing any ofthe other parts of` the apparatus.

Other Vobjects vand advantagesV of the invention -vvill be apparent fromva detailed description of certain preferred embodiments of the samesuch asare shown inthe accompanying drawings, in which Figure l is avside elevation o'f-'a portion of a c ar showing the Yinvention appliedthereto g. Fig.

2 is an elevation at. right angles to the.V view of Fig. l, and. inWhich some. of thes-ills. of the car irameare shown 1nA crosssection;

ig.` 3 is; .a plan view taken along the line of Fig. l; Fig. 5illustrates a modi'ed form of the apparatus offFig. l; Fig. 'G is an endview of the apparatus of Fig. l5; Fig. 7 shows another modification;andvFig/S is a plan view of the base of the apparatus of Fig. 7.

yReferring to the drawings, in which similar reference charactersVdenote similar parts throughout the several viewsthereof, l0 indicatesone of the car Wheels, upon the axle 1l of which the car truck ismounted in the usual manner. Upon the axl'e'll is a pulley-l2 which bymeans of a belt Vl?) is connected to a pulley 14 of a `Car-lightingAdynamo 15, yor other piece of apparatus, 'adapted to be driven from thecar axle. The center sill of the under frame isshown at 16. Parallelwith this sill is a side sillLl and between this sill and the centersill arertransverse frame memberslS; 1,9-19 represent base memberspreferably -in the `form of angle irons,'having their innerAends-permanently attached tothecentersilll, and their outer endspermanently attached to the frame members 18 bydependingbars 20. Y Thebasemembers may lbe formed of other shapes and attachedto the body ofthe car in anyother convenient manner. Their -exact location will dependupon the distance from the cary axle at which the dynamoshould beplaced, and. they should, of

course, be arranged to clear any of the brake rigging or other mechanisminzthe vicinity of the jptruck. SuspendedV from the base members isapair of hails 21 having their ends attachedv to the base members. bybolts, but in Vorderto insure that the bails shall remain upon the basemembers .even ir" the bolts break or drop out, their ends areturneddownwardly as at 22 to engage the inner edges of the basemembers.Vlobracethe bails suitable cross bars 23 lmay be used, and also tiestraps 24. y

At the bottom v,of eac/h bail isV a4 bail shoe 25provided with.depending angesQG fitting over the sides of the bail. The ,body portionof the shoe is slotted to receive bolts 27 by Whiehrthe shoe may be heldin any desired position-of adjustment upon the bail. Eachshoeis providedwith rupturned ends 28 to receive set-screws 29, threaded through Eachshoe is formed at its center `with av lug 31 which serves as abearingg'for a rocker shaft 32. Upon the shaft is mounted a rocker shoe33 held in place by set-screws 34. The dynamo 15 is attached to therocker shoe by bolts 35. nstead of the construction herein shown, therocker shoe may consist VoiV lugs integral with the dynamo casing, orformed in any other convenient manner. The bearings for the rocker shaft82 may be lubricated by any of the usual devices for Y this purpose. Asshown in Figs. 2 and 4 the dynamo is placed upon the shaft32 in such aposition that one oit the rocker shoes lies adjacent one of thebailshoes, and a sleeve 36 surrounds the shalt 32 between the other lrockershoe and bail shoe. As appears *from Fig. 2 the bails are soplaced with respect to the dynamo that they lie Well Within the ends ofthe latter, so that if for any reason shaft 32, or any of the bearingsbreak, the dynamo will be retained in theI bails, and

` not fall upon the track Where it might cause that position inderailment of the train. y

At the top of the dynamo casing is a lug 40 to which is attached one endof a link 41, the other'end of which is attached to a triangular memberor bell crank lever 42 pivoted at 43 to a bracket 44 projecting` Jfromand attached tothe center sill 16. A rod 45 is attached to the lever 42and passes through a bracket 46 attached to the center sill and servesas an abutment for one end of Y a spring 47 surrounding the rod 45,l theother end of the spring being held by a loaded nut 48 threaded on theend ot the rod.

Assume that the belt is of such a length that the dynamo occupies whatWill hereafter be' called its normal position, which is Which its centerof gravity is directly over the shaft upon which it is pivoted. Underthese conditions the spring 47 Will maintain a certain tension in thebelt determined by the adjustment of the eil-ect of the spring by meansof nut 48. It during service, the belt stretches the spring Will tend todra-W the dynamo away from its normal position into a position indicatedby broken line A in Fig. 1. Under these conditions the Weight of thedynamo, as soon as ithas been displaced from its normal position, Willtend to produce additional tension in the driving belt, but at the sametime the change in position of the dynamo Will cause Va lessening of thecompression of spring 47.

lVhile the effective length of the arm of lever 42 to which the link 41is connected is increased, theefective length of the arm to which therod 45 is attached is decreased, which in conjunction With the lessenedeffect of spring 47 Will Vcompensate' for the increase inbelt tensionduefto the Weight of the dynamo, it being understood that the lever 42is so designed With relation to the other parts of the apparatus thatunder these 'conditions the tension in the driving belt is substantiallythe same as that eX- isting when the dynamo occupies its normal osition.V

lf the belt is somewhat shorter, so that the' dynamo cannot be drawn tonormal position, but occupies a position as'indicated by broken line inFig.y 1, the dynamo would, if free to act, Jfall towardV the car axle,thus decreasing the belt tension. Under these conditions, however, thespring will be further compressed so that its retractive effect isgreater and it should be sufficiently greater to compensateQfor thelessened belt tension caused by the tendency of the dynamo to falltoward the car axle. In this case the eifective length of the arm oflever 42 to ivhichthe link 41 isconnected is decreased, but the eectivelength of the other lever arm is increased, and this action taken inconnection With the increased effect of the spring causes substantiallythe same tension 'to` be maintained in the. driving belt as When thedynamo occupies its normal position.

The above description has been based upon the assumption that thedistance between the car axle and the pivot point of the dynamo remainsconstant, as it does When the car is traveling on a straight track, butthe same eiiect occurs if the distance varies` as it does when the caris passing around a curve. II". the result of such a movement oii'theVcar i"s a ydisplacement of the dynamo toward the car axlethecompensating effect of the spring and lever Will prevent any materialchange in the belttension. Also at the time when the ear will naturallybe somewhat' reduced,

and it the curve be a vsharpone the speed may be so low that the dynamoWillnot perform its normal function of generating cur rent. Under theseconditions the load on the driving belt will be considerably reduced,Which thus tends to prevent an undue strain in the belt.A y

Figs. 5 and 6 represent a modilication of the invention in which adifferent arrangement of supporting bails and spring is used.

In these figures the bails 5() eXtend transversely of the car and areattached to the center sill and one of the sidef sills as shownmostelearly in Fig. 6. Horizontal members 51 are attached to the bottomsof the bails, and upon these members are the bail shoes case of breakageofv any part the dynamoY 52- corresponding tov the bailshoes 25 of' Fig.'1. Between'thesloping sides of'each bail 4are protecting :rods 53. 'Inthis 'modification the compensating lever` 5e is` mounted with'its lowerendattached :toa retaining screw 57 passing through-a 'bracket 58 pro-Vjecting from the bottom of' the bail. In

will fall into and be carried by the-horizontal bars 5-1 a-nd the-rods53 will preventV it from roll-ing outof the frame.

, In they modification shown in Figs. 5 and 6 the same compensatingeffects take `place under varying positions'of the dynamo-as in the caseofthe modification of Figi l; If the belt" is of such lengththatthedynamo is displaced from its normalV position, toward the'caraxle the spring 56 willv beI putunder increased Vtension,"th`us`compensatlng4 through the lever 54 for-the Vtendency of the dynamo toVfall' toward the carv axle. I-f on the other hand, the belt-lengthensso that the dynamo tends tto fall in `an opposite direction from itsnormal position, theeffect of the spring will be materiallyreduced, andthroughvthe changedv rela-tion of the lever arms will'compensate for theincreased-belt tension producedby the ef'ectofv the weight of thedynamoL- In themodifi'cation shown in fFigs. 7 and 8, four hangers 60'are attached to base members 6l corresponding to the :members 19 ofFig. l. YrIhe lower endsofthese'hangers are turned-upward 'as' at A62,-and in the re `cesses thus formediareplaced the downwardly turned edgesof a supporting plate 63, bolts 64 being inserted for Yholdino` theplate in place. In this case the mem ers 65 corresponding to thebail'shoes of the other modifications are bolted to the Vunder side ofthe plate 63, and slots are provided in the -lat, ter'through which thelugs on the rocker shoes 66 pass. In case of breakage of any part of thesupport the dynamoV will fall upon the plate 63. With this arrangementeither the compensating lever and spring of Fig` l or that of Fig. 5 maybe used, and therefore no particular form has been illustrated. n

While the normal position of the dynamo has been referred to'as the oneinV which the center of Igravity of the. dynamo is directly over thepivotpoint, it will be understood that the apparatus may be arranged sothat under all conditions the belt willi permit the dynamo to occupy `aposition lcorresponding to A in Fig.V 1 or in which it may alwaysfoccupyg a forward position corresponding to in this figure, but ineithe'r Y case thecompensating lever and .spring willcausesubstantiallyconstant belt tension to be maintained throughoutchangesin position of the-dynamo;

"In Figs 1 and? the bails and hangers havel shown as substantiallyvertical members, but it will be understood that they may be 'spreadapart at the top and slope toward the base, to give greater rigidity inside :stresses As contrasted `with the usual forms of dynamo suspensionin which the pivot point about which the dynamo swings is located abovethe dynamo, the present type of mounting-possesses many advantages, Ifthe pivot' -p'oint is above the dynamo the latter will, under arelatively short bel-t, be drawn toward the car axle into such aposition -as to add the'effectof'itsweight to the belt tension, Vbutunder these conditions the tensioning spring is usually arranged sothatf it will be drawn out or compressed as the case may be, so that itexerts an increased effect, On the other hand the minimum effect of thespringis exerted at a time when the belthaslengthened, so that thedynamo is drawn away from the car axle and its norma'l'tendency is tofall to ward the latter and decrease the belttension. In order,y toovercomecthese contradictory effects various attempts have been made todevise apparatus in which the varying effect ofthe springis Voffset bychanges ofthe effectivelever arm through which the spring acts upon theJdynamo, but these devices have in'practice proved unsatisfactory for4the reason that evenwith Vthis attempted compensation the spring tensionmust be so greatin rorder to maintain the proper belt tensionY when thedynamo'tends to vswing away from the truck, due to a lengthened belt,that when. ,the dynamo is'drawn toward the truck as itis in going aroundVa curve, the spring tension becomes excessive and in many cases 'causesbreakage ofthe driving belt.

The present inventionavoids all of these serious defectsof` devices nowin use, and byl a comparatively sim le construction and the eliminationof complicated systems of compensating levers and other arrangementsenables ya substantially constant tension to be maintained in thedriving belt at all times, but never produces an excessive tension, evenunder those conditions .of use'where prior devices are most likely tofail.

While the invention has been described particularly with. reference toan axle-driven car lighting dynamo, it will be understood that it isequally applicable to any other type of apparatus that may be drivenfrom an axle or may be lused for suspending a device which is to bevused for imparting driving motion to an axle, suchfor instance as anelectric motor.

It will also be understood that while the dynamo has been shownsuspended to the under frame of a steel car, the invention is not to belimited to this construction, as the .suspension may with slightmodifications of the base members and the bails, be

adapted for attachment to the under frames of wooden cars. Other changesmay also be made in the details of the invention without departing fromthe principle thereof.

I claimz' v 1. A dynamo suspension comprising in combination, dependingmembers attached to the bottom of a car, pivot members lattached to thebase of the depending members, a dynamo above and connected to the pivotmembers, a belt for driving the dynamo from the car axle, a spring, anda connection between the dynamo and the spring arranged to cause anincreased eiect `to be exerted on the dynamo to overcome the lessenedeiect of its weight upon the tension of vthe belt as the dynamo swingstoward the car axle and to exert a decreased effect when the dynamoswings away from the car axle and its weight becomes effective inproducing belt tension, whereby the tension in the belt may bemaintained substantially constant with changes in position of the dynamowith respect to thecar axle.

2. A` dynamo suspension comprising in combination, depending membersattached to the bottom of `a car, pivot members attached to the base ofthe depending members, a dynamo above and connected to the pivotmembers, a'belt for driving the dynamo from a car axle, a spring, alever pivoted to the bottom of the car and having one arm connected tothe dynamo and-the other arm connected to the spring, said lever and,spring being so constructed and proportioned that when said dynamo tendsto rotate about its pivot toward the car axle the effective length ofthe arm to which the dynamo is connected is decreased while the edectivelength of the arm to which the springis connected, and the effect ofYthe spring are both increased, while when the dynamo tends to rotateabout its pivot'away from the car axle, the effective length of the armto which the dynamo is connected is increased and the effective lengthof the arm to which the spring is connected, and the eli'ect of thespring are both decreased where-` vided with depending portions fittingover the bail member, ,a rocker shaft rotatably mounted in the bailshoes, a dynamo mounted upon and above therrocker shaft, a belt :fordriving the dynamo from a ear axle, and a spring and compensatingleverconnected to the dynamo for maintaining' substantially constanttension in the driving-belt throughout changes in position of the dynamowith respect to the car axle. 1 1

4. Means for supporting a dynamo from the body of arcar comprising incombination, a pair of depending bail members lattached to the underframe of the car, cross braces between the bail members, a slotted bailshoe mounted upon the lower horizontal portion of each bail member, eachof said shoes being formed .with depending anges fitting over the sidesof the bail member, and upstanding lugs at its ends, adjusting screwspassing through the bail` members and engaging the lugs, retaining boltspassing through the slots in the bail shoes and into the bail members, arocker shaft supported at its ends in thebail shoes a rocker shoemounted upon the rocker shaft, a spacing sleeve upon the rocker shaft, adynamo mounted on the rocker shoe above the shaft, y

a belt for driving the dynamo from acar axle, land a spring andcompensating lever connected to the dynamoformaintaining substantiallyconstant tension in the driving belt throughout changes in positiony ofthe dynamo with respect to the'y car axle.

5. Means for supporting an axle-driven. dynamo .from the body of a carcomprisingI in combination, base members attached to the under frame ofa carLdepending bail members attached to the base members, bail shoesadjustably attached to the lower portions ofthe bail members, ashaftmounted at its ends 1in the bail shoes, a dynamo mounted upon andaboveithe shaft, a spring and a compensating lever connected between thespring and the dynamo for causing any increased effect to be exerted onthe dynamo to overcome the lessened Yeffect of its weight upon thetension of the belt as the dynamo swings toward the car axle and toexert a decreased edect when the dynamorswings away from the car axleand its weight becomes effective in producingbelt tension, whereby thetension in the belt may be maintained substantially constant withchanges in position of the dynamol with respect to the car axle. f

6. suspension for axle-driven dynamos comprising base members attachedto the under frame of a car, depending members attached at their upperends to the vbase members, supporting members connected between thelower ends of the depending members, shoes adjustably mounted on thesupporting'members, a rocker shaft supported at its ends inthe shoes, adynamo mounted on and above the rocker shaft, a spring, and a connectionbetween the dynamo and the spring arranged to cause an increased eect tobe exerted on the dynamo to oyercome the lessened effect of its weightupon the tension of the belt as the dynamo swings toward the car axleand to exert a decreased eifect when the dynamo swings away from the caraxle and its weight becomes effective in producing belt tension, wherebythe tension in the belt ma be maintained substantially constant witchanges in position of the dynamo with respect to the car axle.

In testimony whereof I aiix my signature.

THOMAS L. MOUNT.

